1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device and an electronic apparatus suitable for displaying various kinds of information.
2. Related Art
A semi-transmissive reflective type liquid crystal device for performing a reflective display mode using external light in a bright place and performing a transmissive display mode using illumination light emitted from a backlight as a light source in a dark place is known. In such a liquid crystal device, while the external light passes through a liquid crystal layer twice when the reflective display mode is performed, the illumination light passes through the liquid crystal layer only once when the transmissive display mode is performed.
Thus, in such a liquid crystal device, if the thickness (cell gap) of the liquid crystal layer is “d”, the refractive-index anisotropy of the liquid crystal is “Δn”, and the integration value thereof, that is, retardation of the liquid crystal is “Δnd”, the retardation of the liquid crystal corresponding to a reflective region for performing the reflective display mode is “2×Δnd” because incident light passes through the liquid crystal layer twice and then reaches a viewer. In contrast, the retardation of the liquid crystal corresponding to the transmissive region for performing the transmissive display mode is “1×Δnd” because the illumination light from the backlight passes through the liquid crystal layer only once.
In such a liquid crystal device, a display property (gradation property) such as contrast or brightness varies depending on the case where the reflective display mode is performed and a case where the transmissive display mode is performed and, as a result, display quality deteriorates.
Accordingly, as a liquid crystal device for solving the problem, for example, a multi-gap type semi-transmissive reflective type liquid crystal device in which a step-difference film made of acrylic resin is provided at a position corresponding to a reflective region and a spacer is disposed on the step-difference film such that the thickness of a liquid crystal layer corresponding to the reflective region is less than that of the liquid crystal layer corresponding to the transmissive region to obtain high quality display is generally known.
As this kind of liquid crystal device, a liquid crystal device in which a columnar part (generally, also referred to as “photospacer”) for uniformly maintaining the thickness (cell gap) of a liquid crystal layer interposed between an element substrate and an opposite substrate is provided at a predetermined position to reduce an alignment defect of liquid crystal is suggested (for example, see JP-A-2004-69826).
In the liquid crystal device disclosed in JP-A-2004-69826, a convex step-difference part is formed in a predetermined region including a reflective region and a columnar part is made of a transparent organic insulating material such as acryl and disposed at a position facing the convex step-difference part in a non-opening region of each pixel. A relative positional relationship between a color filter and the columnar part is defined such that a color filter of blue is positioned at a downstream side of a rubbing direction from the columnar part. In the liquid crystal device having such a configuration, at the time of a rubbing process, a rubbing-defective region occurs due to existence of the columnar part and thus an alignment defect of liquid crystal occurs in the region. Since the alignment defect is inconspicuous on a display when the alignment defect of the liquid crystal occurs in a pixel corresponding to the color filter of blue, in this liquid crystal device, the above-described object is realized by disposing the columnar part at the above-described position.